'How does George Elliot account for the changes that occur over the course of the novel in Silas Marner's character and his relationships with others?'

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H.Crawford Page 1 07/05/2007

English EW

'How does George Elliot account for the changes that occur over the course of the novel in Silas Marner's character and his relationships with others?'

In order to answer this question we must first look at what changes do actually occur; firstly there is the main change in the book, which is the change that occurs in Silas Marner himself. This is the main theme of the book, and indeed, this change is divided into two parts; the Silas before Eppie arrives and the Silas after she has arrived. Furthermore this is the first and simple way that we can see that George Elliot has accounted for this change; she has divided the book into two parts according to the above change.

Whilst this is the main change in the novel, there are many others, but the important difference to note is that they all revolve around the above change; take, for instance, the change that occurs in the Raveloe village itself; it changes as Silas does, for at first they thought that Silas was strange or even some kind of demon, but then as he changed and 'opened up'